An Ohio cop filed a lawsuit against local sheriff’s for arresting her on the way to her shift and placing her young child in foster care.
Ohio cop sues sheriff’s office
Officer Miranda Brothers, has alleged in a new lawsuit that the Portage County Sheriff’s Office arrested her on baseless charges, placed her child in foster care, and illegally circulated personal photos from her phone.
Brothers, who is part of the Mantua Police Department, was pulled over by deputies on January 1, 2024. Bodycam footage shows Brothers visibly upset as officers removed her young son from the vehicle.
“You’re gonna take custody of my kid? For what?” Brothers asked the deputies as tensions rose.
The sheriff’s deputies claimed Brothers had left her 5-year-old son alone with a known sex offender.
This accusation led to her immediate arrest, and her child was temporarily placed in foster care. By the following day, she was charged with child endangerment.
Footage captured during the traffic stop shows a deputy serving Brothers with a warrant to seize her phone. Additionally, Brothers reportedly handed over her child’s tablet voluntarily.
“I don’t know what’s going on,” she told deputies on bodycam video as she stood next to her car, accompanied by her son and a dog.
After being detained and questioned by detectives, Brothers was informed that her arrest stemmed from tips suggesting she had endangered her child.
On December 7, 2023, detectives began their observation of Brothers and her son at a restaurant following these tips.
Charges against Ohio cop dismissed
Yet, under oath, Detective Mischell Weber later stated that the claims of child endangerment were “unfounded” and “not accurate,” according to court records.
Further testimony revealed key flaws in the case against Brothers. Detective Eric Noall testified there was no evidence showing her child had been unsupervised in the presence of a registered sex offender.
Additional testimony by four detectives corroborated this, with none of them having personally observed any instances of potential danger involving the child.
Fast forward to July 11, 2024, and Portage County Municipal Court Judge Mark Fankhauser dismissed the charges against Brothers in their entirety. Following the dismissal, she was reinstated in her role with the Mantua Police Department.
But Brothers wasn’t willing to move on without a fight. She formally filed a lawsuit targeting multiple defendants, including the Portage County Board of Commissioners, the Sheriff’s Department, Sheriff Bruce Zuchowsky, Detective Kenneth Romo, and another detective who was not named.
According to Brothers’ complaint, the criminal charges directly contradicted sworn statements from several detectives who had investigated the accusations.
Despite the allegations, no credible evidence of wrongdoing was found during a forensic examination of her phone. Detective Michael Hanna testified that the phone contained no material supporting the claims against her.
Deputies shared explicit images
However, Brothers alleges far graver misconduct involving her personal data. The suit accuses at least one sheriff’s office employee of accessing and sharing private, explicit images from her phone.
“Despite knowing that the digital images were not relevant to any criminal charge, Detective John Doe shared and/or disseminated these digital images within the Portage County [Sheriff’s] Office and potentially further,” the lawsuit states. Her attorney, Eric Fink, confirmed that the images were of an explicit nature.
Fink further explained, “She took her child to her babysitter who was at a restaurant in Mantua, she was scheduled to work in Mantua. Her babysitter is an off-duty police dispatcher, background checked.”
“While she was there, the sheriff’s department set up a couple of detectives who were photographing and looking to determine apparently whether she left her child with a registered sex offender instead of the babysitter police dispatcher,” he detailed.
The lawsuit contends that Brothers endured significant emotional and psychological distress due to the sheriff’s office’s actions.
She is pursuing legal action for malicious prosecution, violations of her constitutional rights under the Fourth, Fifth, Eighth, and 14th Amendments, as well as emotional distress and professional interference.
Brothers seeks at least $25,000 in compensatory damages and $500,000 in punitive damages from each defendant named in the suit.
